When I bought my Argentine sword it had short wide leaves and long stems. Now any new growth has very long and slender leaves. it's growing pretty fast but with different shaped leaves than it already had. could this be different water conditions or what? anybody have any ideas?

Ph=8.0
ammonia=0
nitrites=0
nitrates= 5.0ppm or less
10 gallon
had it for 3 months
fluorescent light with higher blue spec.
water parameters taken before water change.

Oldfishlady

03-04-2010 08:58 AM

Most plants are grown emersed (just the base and roots under water) at the nursery to limit algae, snail and they get better light and pull CO2 from the air so they grow faster and bigger, most likely what you are seeing is the submersed leaf growth that is different than the emersed leaf growth.
Most swords in nature spend time out of the water (emersed) and part of their life under water (submersed) the two leaves look and act different.

Byron

03-04-2010 02:08 PM

2 Attachment(s)

I concur with Oldfishlady on the reason.

I would be interested in what species this is, from your description it does not sound like E. argentinensis of which I have attached two photos of the submersed plant. Is this what yours looks like?

Byron.

poolman84

03-05-2010 09:42 AM

Thanks peoples, the plant was sold to me as an Argentine sword but I know how much that matters...hehe. I'll try to attach a few pics.

That is Echinodorus argentinensis. Submersed it has leaves as you show in the last set of photos. I mistakenly took your earlier comment about long slender leaves as something much different, my fault for jumping to conclusions.

I also was a bit confusing in the photos; Echinodorus develop slightly different leaves under different light intensity as well, another reason why identification of species is tricky. Under more intense light, the leaves will be more like those in the photos I previously posted. Rataj in his recent revision of the genus (2004) has a photo identical to those I posted, but a drawing of a leaf like what you have photographed.

Anyway, I think we can safely assume it is Echinodorus argentinensis [Rataj 1970]. It was previously incorrectly named as E. grandiflorus var. ovatus, E. ellipticus or E. longistylis. Dr. Karel Rataj who has done more work on this genus than anyone, considers it one of the most beautiful aquarium plants. I've never found it locally.